Whistler featured in Love It or List It spinoff

Spotlight on vacation homes in spinoff of Canadian tv series

Top secret Hosts Elisa Goldhawke and Dan Vickery were filming their new spinoff Love it or List It Vacation Homes in Whistler this week, but they're keeping tight-lipped on the details.

It's one of the age-old questions of home ownership: to spend the money and renovate, or move on to something else?

Renovate or relocate? Embrace what you know or look for something else?

And is that question even more difficult to answer when it comes to a vacation home?

The popular Canadian television franchise Love it or List It is about to find out in a new spinoff featuring vacation homes. It's aptly named Love It or List It Vacation Homes and where better to find some interesting vacation homes than Whistler, which will be featured in two episodes in the new series. The show will also head to Muskoka and Collingwood in Ontario and Hornby Island in B.C.

"A lot of the times the vacation homes have been down through the family and so they have a lot of memories associated with it," said interior designer Dan Vickery, whose job is to convince homeowners to "love it" after he's finished with a home renovation. "They've had specific holidays or vacations or maybe they learned to fish with their grandpa who's passed away. So that's something that you can't replace."

His co-host, realtor Elisa Goldhawke, dismisses that idea right away as the pair fall into their on-screen banter, even without the cameras rolling.

"Of course you can, with new memories. New memories, Dan. Memories are in history books. We start new chapters and that's what I do for them," said Goldhawke with a matter-of-fact smile.

It's early afternoon on Monday, Dec. 6 and the pair has just wrapped filming at a chalet, which is on Whistler's red-hot real estate market, one of a handful of properties presented to a Vancouver couple who will ultimately have to decide whether to love or list their Whistler chalet.

"There's always something out there that's comparable to what they have and a lot of the times even better," said a confident Goldhawke.

There's an interesting and eclectic mix to choose from in Whistler from A-frames to Gothic arches, multimillion-dollar pads to stucco chalets.

"Whistler was clearly a small town about 50 years ago and everybody was just coming in and building cabins," said Vickery. "There weren't a lot of regulations. So, the character is beautiful but it also comes with a lot of issues, which we have to deal with in the renovations."

The duo was tight-lipped on the details of their respective duties for the show, as well as any information on the featured home and couple.

Stay tuned for that.

Love it or List It Vacation Homes is set to premiere in Canada in the spring. Filming is ongoing over the winter.